Winter's Dragons. Frozen Flames: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (Soulmates of Seasons Book 2)

by Eva Brandt

  When in doubt, stall and go for politeness. “My name is Cassia, Your Majesty,” I answered. “I’m a friend of your brother’s. I apologize for trespassing on your territory. We simply play here together, on occasion.”

  “Do you really? You must have a taste for dangerous games. Cassia.”

  The way she said my name—like it was a separate sentence in itself, not just a word—spoke volumes of just how much trouble I was in. I opened my mouth to answer, to try to buy a little more time. Snegurka must’ve seen right through me, because she glided to our side, as swift and ruthless as a blizzard. Before I knew what was going on, a cold hand landed on my shoulder and squeezed.

  I couldn’t suppress a gasp as I felt my whole arm go numb. Snegurka laughed. “You could be right, though. I find this game most amusing myself.”

  Jack cried out in distress and grabbed onto her robes, trying to tug her away from me. I could tell he was attempting to summon his magic, but for whatever reason—probably because of Snegurka—it wasn’t working. He didn’t give up. “Leave her alone, Snegurka! This isn’t her fault!”

  “Isn’t it? Then it must be yours, in which case you must be punished twice as severely. Do you know what kind of punishment traitors deserve, little brother? Death.”

  A dagger of ice manifested in her hand. Jack just stood there, watching wide-eyed as his sister prepared herself to slit his throat. The death blow never came.

  Anger and warmth rushed over me, and my arm—the arm Snegurka was still holding onto—went fiery hot. The numbness vanished, and Snegurka yelped, instinctively snatching her limb away from my own. She stumbled back, as shocked as Jack had been not one minute ago.

  For a few seconds, she stared at her now burnt hand, as if she couldn’t believe it actually belonged to her. Then, much to my surprise, she looked up at me and laughed. “You’re no nymph,” she told me. “What are you?”

  I didn’t think providing an explanation would intimidate her or convince her to leave us alone, so I didn’t answer. Instead, I grabbed Jack’s arm and started to drag him further away from his sister. “Run, Jack. I’ll stall her!”

  Snegurka gave me a look of disbelief, and I could not blame her for her attitude. Compared to the magic she wielded, the things I could do were nothing. The minor burn I had inflicted upon her healed under my very eyes, and I knew it was unlikely I’d be able to manage that again since she was forewarned to not touch me.

  Jack must’ve realized this as well because he immediately started to protest. “I can’t just leave you. This is all my fault!”

  It really wasn’t. He could hardly be blamed for his sister’s insanity, or for the fact that she had tracked him down here when he’d been trying to keep me and my family safe.

  Alas, this was neither the time nor the place for me to reassure my friend. The sole moment of distraction was enough for Snegurka to make a grab for me again, this time using her magic, instead of her hands.

  The moment I felt the suffocating hold of her abilities crushing me in a cocoon of ice, I panicked. The heat intrinsic to my nature was not enough to fight her back, but I didn’t know what to do.

  My earlier conversation with my sister flashed through my mind. “The spell is correct! I’m sure of it. I overheard Mother chanting it yesterday.”

  Power surged through me, fueled by my desperation and my desire to survive. I couldn’t find my end here. My family needed me. My sisters were right on the other side of the bridge, probably watching the entire scene. How would they ever recover from seeing me die? Pandora would undoubtedly blame herself for not being able to help. Tarasia’s sunny smiles would disappear, and Eranthe’s innocence would wither away. And our mother... I could not even imagine how she’d react.

  Yes, I had to protect them, to keep them safe. The spell was correct. I just needed to make it work. I needed to believe and to fight back. It was the only chance I had left, for myself, for my family, for my realm.

  It was a stupid hope, really, the last-ditch plan of a frightened child. Despite how much Pandora and I had struggled with it, the enchantment wasn’t actually that complicated or elaborate, just a spell intended to manipulate flowers and things that grew. It should not have worked on the frozen earth of The Realm of Eternal Ice, and it should not have had any effect on Snegurka, the queen of that realm.

  It did.

  A thick vine exploded out of the ground and headed straight for Snegurka. Normally, I would’ve tried to wrap it around her, but my mind was a blank and my magic all over the place. The vine went straight through her, piercing her chest like a ruthless blade. Her eyes went almost comically wide, and her hold on me faltered.

  I would’ve been happier about that had the vine’s attack not caused a secondary side effect. Her icy blood splashed over my face, colder than her touch could ever be, burning me to the very core. The last thing I registered was the sound of Jack’s terrified screams, and then, the world went black.

  Six

  Attack

  Cheimon

  Present day

  “So, wait... You killed the former queen of this realm when you were only a child? Wonderful! Truly wonderful.”

  “Your hatchlings are bound to be great warriors! Oh, I look forward to the day so much. We will teach them how to eviscerate their enemies together.”

  I shot Emmerich’s parents an unimpressed look. I appreciated their enthusiasm for my actions and their hopes for the future I’d presumably share with their son, but now was not the time for such discussions.

  Emmerich hugged me a little closer, and some of my tension dissipated like smoke in the wind. Despite the fact that I was still upset with my dragons, I was glad they’d made their way to my side and decided to tighten ranks around me while I was telling my story. Even now, their presence anchored me.

  “Of course I didn’t kill her,” I explained, finding strength in their heat and familiarity. “It’s not so easy to kill such a being. I did stall her, though, long enough that my sisters managed to drag me out of there, get my mother and evacuate the village. Snegurka still invaded Tis Ánoixis, but a little later. By that time, King Jarylo, who was then the leader of The Realm of Eternal Youth, had already been alerted and he came to face her properly. “

  “So it was this Jarylo person who ended up defeating her and turning her into a malevolent ball of energy?” Kasumi inquired.

  I shook my head. “I’m told he lost quite spectacularly. My father was the one who stopped the whole thing. He showed up once it became obvious that we could not handle our own affairs and ended her invasion.”

  Technically, his actions had been against the rules of the gods. Only a handful of deities were ever allowed to coexist and intervene at the same in the mortal world, and he hadn’t been included on the list. To this day, I didn’t know how he’d gotten away with it, or with everything he’d done after the war. Maybe it was just because he could be really charming when he tried. Solar deities were like that, and nobody could ever hold their slights against them, even if doing so would’ve been completely warranted.

  “In any case, by the time I woke up, a week had passed and the whole thing was pretty much over. My father just had to decide what to do with Snegurka.”

  “Couldn’t he just eviscerate her and be done with it?” Isebrand asked.

  What was it with Emmerich’s parents and evisceration? Was it a firedrake thing? I’d have to remember to ask Emmerich. He’d never made such comments in the past, but that didn’t mean much.

  “No, such a simple method would not have worked. More than a goddess, Snegurka is something like an ice elemental. Ded Moroz’s creation of her was unusual, in that she was literally born from the snow. For that reason, she can never die as long as she preserves even a fraction of her powers.”

  Honestly, when I’d heard the whole story, I’d deemed it a little amusing. My mother had been the one to tell me about it, as a warning against possible life-creation experiments. Apparently, Ded Moroz had had a litt
le... accident while in The Frozen Tundra and had spilled his seed onto the ice.

  I’d never actually blamed him for it, as masturbation was the most natural thing in the world. I also hadn’t believed Snegurka’s behavior was his fault since Jack was his child too—albeit born through the regular process—and he wasn’t a maniac bent on genocide. This was why I’d trusted Ded Moroz to be my advisor after I had taken the throne. However, his mistakes had already become very costly, and his actions today might just be the last straw.

  But there was no reason to go into detail over Ded Moroz’s situation, as it did not really matter. I had other priorities right now, namely, my stubborn dragons.

  Kerryn appeared to be musing over the information I’d given them and wondering how he could use it to help me. “I assume your father did find a method that actually worked, right?” he asked. “I don’t remember her being an issue when we first arrived.”

  “Well, yes. My father extracted Snegurka’s powers and granted them to me once I was a little older. Due to the incident at the river, I was uniquely qualified to participate in the ritual. At age fifteen, I could not contain the full extent of her abilities, so once she was depowered, she was placed in a fiery pit and watched over by a trusted guard, Oki. Unfortunately, it appears something has gone wrong since I cannot find him and she is free.”

  “Oh, fiery pits!” Jerika whispered. “This place is more similar to Land der Drachen than I thought. How exciting.”

  Her mate nodded. I ignored them.

  “So in other words, in order to defeat her, I have to find her, extract the rest of her abilities and finish the job I started when I was ten. Which is, obviously, something only I can do.”

  The latter sentence came out sharp and biting, but I could not help myself. I hated that they were putting me in this position when they knew they were vulnerable to Snegurka’s magic due to their reptilian natures. I wanted to believe that my powers and blessings could protect them, but I wasn’t sure that was true. If they temporarily left to Eranthe’s realm, I’d have enough time to hunt Snegurka down while making sure no harm would come to the men I loved and their families.

  “We understand your point of view, treasure,” Emmerich said, “and the last thing we want is to be a hindrance. But surely there must be something we can do to help. You weren’t always ice-aligned either, and yet you faced her. You just said so. We might not be able to stand against Snegurka, but we’re not powerless.”

  I ripped myself away from his embrace, well and truly exasperated. Gods save me from the egos and overprotectiveness of men. “I never said that you were, but it is simply better to not take the chance. I got lucky when I was ten because she wanted to toy with us before she killed us and my abilities took her by surprise. She won’t hold back in a confrontation with you.”

  I could already tell that my arguments had failed to persuade my soulmates. They belonged to a species of warriors, and running away wasn’t an approach they were inclined to use. For that reason, I knew that making this request was unfair. But what else could I do? Until Snegurka stopped being a problem, I had to think like a queen, and for a queen, especially someone like me, three reptilian consorts were a vulnerability I could not afford.

  Raijin let out a slow breath as if he was trying to calm down. “All right. Let’s take a step back and think about this. This argument isn’t helping us, and we might be missing something important here.”

  “Something important?” I repeated. “What do you mean, Raijin?”

  “Well, don’t you think it’s odd? The fact that she chose to possess this tengu, to begin with? Had she not done so, you would have never known she was free, not immediately at least, which would’ve given her more time to recover from her captivity or allowed her to take you by surprise with an attack. But she didn’t do that. Why?”

  “Where did her demonic magic even come from?” Kerryn mused. “I mean, if she is an ice elemental like you said, shouldn’t her magic be more akin to yours? It’s obviously not.”

  They had a point. The demonic magic hadn’t been all that surprising, but I hadn’t been aware that Snegurka could use it to possess people. As far as I knew, she’d never done it before. And if it was a new ability, why had she chosen to target Karasu with it, now of all times?

  “The nature of her magic has something to do with the enchantment she cast to summon her soulmate. As I’ve mentioned in the past, the spell itself originates from Ton Daímon, and it’s incompatible with the nature of an ice elemental, which is what drove her mad, to begin with. But I’ve never seen her possess anyone before, and it is odd that she attacked Karasu. What could she hope to gain by doing such a thing?”

  “She’s jealous,” Brigid suddenly blurted out. “That’s what this is about.”

  Everyone, including me, turned to look at Kerryn’s mother. “Jealous?”

  “Isn’t it obvious, Your Majesty? This whole thing supposedly started because the Snegurka creature was looking for love through a dangerous enchantment. And now, here you are, having found your own soulmates. Of course she will be interested in getting in your way. The tengu was merely a convenient method of entering the palace, perhaps to find out more about them.”

  Dread rose inside me as I realized Brigid was correct. Karasu had been carrying my letter to Pandora in which I’d asked her for advice regarding my relationship with my dragons. It stood to reason that Snegurka wanted to use the information against me.

  My worst enemy was interested in making my lovers a target, and I’d exposed them to her magic outright. I had just sworn to myself that I would protect my dragons from her viciousness, and I was already failing.

  “This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, treasure,” Raijin said. “If it’s us she’s after, we could lure her out from wherever she’s hiding. Then you could go through with your part of the plan, and extract her magic. Problem solved.”

  Kerryn and Emmerich were already nodding before Raijin could even finish speaking. I gaped at them in horror, wondering how they could have misinterpreted the situation so badly. “Are you serious? Brigid just said that Snegurka will be after you and your response is to lower your guard and taunt her to come after you?”

  “It’s expedient, efficient and simple,” Kerryn replied. “You like simple plans, don’t you, treasure?”

  “I like keeping you alive more!” I shouted at him.

  Our argument might have escalated further had Noboru not decided to intervene. “Let’s not be so hasty. There’s no reason why our sons should be in danger at all. It’s highly unlikely that this Snegurka creature can distinguish one dragon male from the other, as long as they belong to the same species. Here’s what I propose. Isebrand, Devin and I can go look for her throughout your realm. Our sons can remain by your side, as is appropriate for males to do under such circumstances. Our females can serve as reinforcements and keep an eye on your lair, in case she dares to come here again.”

  I had to admit that I could see the sense in Noboru’s approach, and it would mean my soulmates wouldn’t have to act as bait. However, it would expose the older dragons to danger, and I wasn’t sure I was comfortable with that. They weren’t in the least bit familiar with Tou Cheimóna and they couldn’t just fly around blindly and hope for the best. And if they did find Snegurka, what then?

  On the other hand, there was also Jack to consider. Jack’s bond with Lerna wasn’t common knowledge, but if Snegurka found out about it, she’d try to attack him once again. She might still be weakened from her imprisonment and therefore bound to our realm, but Lerna’s garrison was not far from the border, and it wasn’t out of the question that Snegurka could reach him there.

  Taking everything into account, I finally made a decision. “It is a good plan,” I said, “but it’s very risky for you.”

  “Oh, we know, but we’re not worried,” Devin answered. “It is our duty as males to protect our mates, realm, and hatchlings. This might not be our realm, but at least temporarily, i
t’s close enough.”

  The words reminded me a lot of the first dinner I’d shared with my dragons. Their parents might not have been as dedicated to me as my soulmates were, but clearly, they wanted to make sure Emmerich, Raijin, and Kerryn didn’t get hurt because of my inability to deal with a matter that should have never stayed unaddressed for so long.

  I couldn’t ignore the resource they represented, even if I felt they would be no match for Snegurka. “Taking such a huge risk may yet be unnecessary. However, there is something you might be able to help me with.”

  I’d already sent December to check up on the prison as soon as I had realized I could neither summon Mariko nor locate her and Oki. I knew that wherever they might be, Snegurka must’ve gotten to them both. Since they were undead, the two of them could not be easily destroyed, and that provided me with some comfort, but at the same time, I could not underestimate Snegurka.

  Somehow, she’d made it past the ward at her prison door. Somehow, she’d bypassed all the security measures my father had set. If that was the case, who knew what else she could’ve done to the two people who’d been her jailers for so long?

  I had to let Jack and my sisters know Snegurka was free. Since we were stuck without messengers and had yet to find an easier solution to communicate across long distances, I’d have to use the dragons. Once I gave them the directions they would need and spoke with my lieutenants, I would go investigate the prison myself. I could not wait for December to return.

  Come to think of it, why was it taking so long for February and January to report to me? At least ten minutes had passed since I’d spoken to my third lieutenant.

  As if summoned by my thoughts, February burst into my quarters, wild-eyed and in a panic. Alarm exploded through me as soon as I saw him. “What is it, February? What’s happened?”

  “Your Majesty, we’ve just received word from The Bridge of Melting Snowflakes! The amarok pack... The amarok pack stationed there has been attacked.”